


The Theory of Nothing

by Kanana



Category: Endgame - Samuel Beckett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:40:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22978528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kanana/pseuds/Kanana
Summary: This is an essay that takes a look at the meaninglessness of life as it is seen in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame". The essay eventually concludes that unless we each believe in something outside ourselves there is nothing for us than death. So that perhaps believing in something outside yourself is more important that what you believe in.





	The Theory of Nothing

When approaching any point of contention or discussion there is much to be gained by defining the terms of the point that is to be discussed. This is a principle that is pounded into the heads of any student taking a logic or debate class. One example of a debate is any academic discussion over Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. It has been argued by critics that nothing happens in Beckett’s plays. However, saying that nothing implies that there is no movement among the characters and no change in thought among the audience. Nothing happening is defined in this sense as no change taking place in the play. However, something does happen in the hearts and minds of the audience. The characters do not have any substantial changes in their psyche, but their absurdity and their inability to find meaning in their lives forces the audience to take a closer look into their own souls and to change their world view to address what they find there. 

In this play, Beckett is attempting to be witty as he draws attention to the absurdity of life. Every character on the stage is simply waiting for death. The first spoken lines seem to imply this as Clov opens the play by saying, “Finished, it’s finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished.” The finish, that is what every character in the play requires, an end. They are miserable and although “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness” unhappiness is funnier when it is lived by others. This play is a philosophical comedy, but it is also a reflection upon life. It enables the viewers to look within themselves and question whether they base their lives on endings or beginnings. It requires them to see the absurdity of a life without a purpose. Every character in this play is disabled in some way, but perhaps their biggest disability is their inability to look outside themselves. They lived lives in the past. Lives where they loved once, could hear once and could see once. Yet they never seemed to have used these abilities to see beyond themselves. Their lives are meaningless. They have nothing to live for but themselves. They followed self-gratification to its obvious conclusion, a meaningless end. 

When I watched and read this play, I initially thought that nothing had happened in it. Then I began to contemplate the characters and how meaningless their lives were. Through this I found my belief in a God reinforced, a belief that I had to live for something beyond myself. Whether He is true or false, my belief alone gave a point of meaning that could help my life from deteriorating into something meaningless. In this play, something happens because the viewer is required to look upon the futility of a meaningless life and ask themselves to live for a greater purpose. They are asked, “Do you believe in the life to come?” Do you believe you have a greater purpose? This purpose would depend upon the individual. The point is not what they live for, but that they learn to live for something beyond themselves. That the audience should choose a point in the world in which to make their center or they may find themselves adrift in the very absurdity of a self-gratifying life. There is no merit to the literary critic that says that nothing happens in Beckett's plays. In a way, you could say that all that happened to the characters on the stage happened in the past. It is their past in which the viewers of the play find their answers. The people in this play had things happen to them in the past. The viewers of this play find that this play can decide their future.


End file.
